BEFORE I START to LOAD 2 of EACH ANIMAL on the ARK......SOME SPORTS SHORTS!!!

Will it ever, ever, ever stop FRIGGIN RAINING? I'm begin to think that I've been transformed into one of those Twilight Zone episodes where things get switched--- unbeknownst to me. Something like while I was sleeping around the 1st of the month, New Jersey actually transformed into Seattle......rain, rain, rain, rain.......Only problem is, I don't see a Starbucks on every corner and hey.....where's the grunge music?

So without any US Open to watch on this rainy day, some blogging to try and lift my spirts:

MARIAN HOSSA

Pictures tell 1,000 words and I don't even have to add one to this!!!

US OPEN

a) I want to see Phil win. I'm a Phil guy.

b) I believe Tiger is gonna win. Win by 5+ shots.

c) My darkhorse is the man in pastel, Ian Poulter.

MONEY TALKS

Item #1: Plaxico Burress is facing a possible 3-year sentence for shooting HIMSELF! Item #2: Michael Vick get 2 years in jail for animal cruelty.....killing dogs.

Item #3: Donte Stallworth gets 30 days for KILLING A HUMAN BEING!

What's this tell you??? If you can write enough 000,000's on a check, you have the ability to buy your way out of causing the death of another person. Hope the family enjoys all that money they got in exchange for allowing the killer to spend ONLY 30 days in prison. To me this is blood money in a different form. DISGRACEFUL!!!

PLAXICO a JET?

If I'm Rex Ryan and unless I gain about 150 pounds, I'm not......NO WAY, no how do I want Plaxico on my team. Forget about the shooting instance. He's a ME GUY on a team coached by a rookie coach preaching it is all about the TEAM. There's no "I" in team. DON'T do it Rex.

GOOD LUCK LeBRON

If you believe that Mike Brown was actually the best coach in the NBA this year, then please allow me to serve up this invitation to see me next year in the Mr. Universe contest. PPPPPPPPllease!

GIVE ME the SMELLING SALTS

Shocking, SHOCKING news that Sammy Sosa took steroids. As an early major leaguer he had the body of a flamingo with a baseball cap on and then low and behold practically overnight he has muscles upon muscles and hitting 60+ homers a year. Throw in getting caught with a corked bat as well and it all adds up for me. So now we've got 2 (A-Rod is the other) out of the 103 positive steroids tests from 2003. Gives us the other 101 names and let's move on, I'm tired!

FAVORITE SPORTS TWEETS

* John Heyman of SI.com on the Mets bad health and bad fundamentals........."I'm starting to think the Mets Doctor and Baserunning Coach are the same guy."

* Bill Simmons the SportsGuy on the NEW Yankee Stadium........"Yankee Stadium is like flying a red-eye in First Class. Just as quiet, just as expensive."

Hope the rain stops in time for me to disembark from the Ark and make it to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor waterpark for my Father's Day ritual outing. If not, I'll play with the giraffes, elephants and others on the Ark!

Later! DZ22

THE ICE IS ON FIRE........and if you're missing it, SHAME ON YOU FOR 6 WEEKS!!!

THE PUCK IS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! If you're Gary Bettman right now, Commissioner of the NHL, you gotta be happier than a Hawaiian teenager who just got placed in Mary Beth Letourneau's class!!! I think Gary and all the NHL brass raised a toast after tonight's Red Wings OT win. A finals of finals is ready to played out and I hope you're watching. The league gets the defending champs and probably their most prominent franchise.... (Sorry you readers from Canada, but MONTREAL has underperformed for far too long and TORONTO just plain SUCKS so bad, neither can rate #1!!!).... in a rematch against a team from the league's BEST hockey city with the league's BEST player, one Mr. Sidney Crosby. Add in getting in Game #1 and #2 on NBC on the 2 best ratings days of the week, Saturday and Sunday and yes Gary Bettman should be drinking the bubbly this weekend. For me, Mr. Dog Zog will be anchored to the couch, not with the bubbly but rooting on my Pens with Molson Canadians.....Light as Mr. DZ needs to shed more than a few pounds. Yes the management of the NHL along with their fans should rejoice. Take it from me, someone who has watched NHL playoff hockey for about 4o years, I cannot remember a year where the playoffs have been better. Then look at the competition.......the NBA playoffs for Rounds #1 and #2 have pretty much S-U-C-K-E-D. Ok, Celtics vs Bulls was an exciting 7 game series with OT after OT game, but the quality of basketball in that series was not gonna have anybody put the videos into any time capsule anytime soon. Now while the NBA conference finals in all fairness have been FABULOUS, if the NBA does not get Lakers vs Cavs, aka......Kobe vs LeBron....frankly the excitement and storylines will pale vs Red Wings vs Pens. Advantage NHL!!! Some other quickies on the NHL playoffs....... BILL COWHER, the new FREDO CORLEONE......... I don't think Bill Cowher must have ever seen The Godfather. Surely he would have known to never take sides against the family. Born and bred in Pittsburgh, coach of the Steelers and he roots against the PGH Penguins and for a team in a city where he's lived full time for a whopping total of 2 years. Bill, that siren you set off before Game #4 was signaling the start of your popularity decline in the Steel City. BTW......couldn't you see Cowher with the thinning hair and jutting chin just spouting the classic Fredo line.....this one from Godfather 2....."I'm smart, I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks". In this case Fredo, excuse me......Bill....yes you were. HARD as THIS IS to BELIEVE, FLYERS FANS are IDIOTS.......... I still have e-mails bouncing around amongst friends and friends of friends, some PGH fans and some from CheeseSteak Land talking about the Sid the Kid Crosby and moaning about how he gets all the referee calls....that he's a soft player.....and that he's a whiner.....blah, blah, blah, blah>>>orange and black blah, blah. Very simply, the score is: SIDNEY CROSBY 2 PHILLY FLYERS 0. Oh sorry, make that SIDNEY CROSBY 2 PHILLY FLYERS....Fore!!! OK, ENOUGH with OVIE............ OK, now 7 games do not make a career, but please let it be known loud and clear that one Mr. Sidney Crosby is THE BEST hockey player on this planet. While Ovie is the best TALENT in the NHL, the best player mantra encompasses team accomplishments. The best PLAYER makes the guys around him better. E.G.....after Scottie Pippen, how mediocre were those Bulls championship rosters that played with MJ??? Sid's got the better team and he makes EVERYONE on that team better. Give Ovie all the Hart Trophies (MVP award for all you puck neophytes in the reading area) you want. But watch Sid hoist that Stanley Cup over his head. Hopefully we can witness this in about 1 week from now. RESURRECTING THE ROAR........................ One of my biggest thrills and greatest sports memories was getting to see a Blackhawks game in the final year of the old Chicago Stadium. The classic Sunday night game, the CoCo Puffs organ at roof level directly behind the net, Wayne Messmer singing the national anthem while the crowd basically drowned out every word. CLASSIC as classic can be. Well it was great to see the R-O-A-R come back in full force this year in Chicago. The young Hawks team really had some exciting series wins vs Calgary and Vancouver, that brought down the house. Then they got much more than they could handle with the Red Wings and painfully in Game #3 they melted down faster than the breasts of a Hooters waitress if you lit a candle next to them. But there are great things to look forward to in the Windy City and it is so GREAT to hear that ROAR once more. And finally...........as a Penguins fans on the verge of playing in the Stanley Cup final vs the Detroit Red Wings. For my personal thoughts on the Red Wings, I recall the words of one of our legendary collegiate scholars, Dean Vernon Wormer. While the boys of Delta House wreak havoc on the streets, the legendary Dean Wormer in utter disdain gives us........"I hate those guys". So is the same for me and the Red Wings. DZ22

LEARNING HOW TO HIT THE CURVEBALL.........of LIFE THAT IS......

Please be warned that this blog will VERY MUCH deviate from the normal mindless observations of yours truly and will instead for this blog, stirke a much louder and much more important chord. April for several years now and for hopefully many, many more years going forward is designated as AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH. Before the month ends, I needed to, by my own words ask all of you to make the effort to consider EVERY month as Autism Awareness Month. While I can rattle of data of how many children now are now classified as autistic......and how more and more families are affected........how more and more children with autism are becoming adults with autism..........and how I can talk about the EXPLOSION of autistic children in our schools........on and on and on.........no, I'll just ask of all of you one thing, one word that is detailed in the autism banner for April.......that word is AWARENESS. Now, I would love for that word to be UNDERSTANDING, but one must walk before they can run. So before one can have understanding, one must have AWARENESS. And when I ask for AWARENESS, it is not in the form of more complicated questions like.....What causes Autism? How many people are affected by Autism? What characteristics are prevelant in Autism? NO, it is someting much, much more basic than that. AWARENESS is seeing a kid acting up at the grocery store, instead of thinking....."Wow, what shitty parents those people are, look at that kid"......no, it might be that the child is autistic. When a child at church won't stay still or won't be quiet......don't prejudge the child or the parents. Just give them a kind hello or a warm smile as that child could be autistic. When a child may not be able to "fit in" or "seem odd".....be AWARE, that child could be autistic. Or when a child displays "inappropriate behavior" or lacks the "social graces", have a laugh about it as again, it might not be poor parenting, but it could be a child with autism. While all of us as parents of autistic children would love to have understanding of our journey, the world unforunately is not that realistic and frankly not that kind. All we ask is AWARENESS, because while understanding may not come from AWARENESS, I believe that COMPASSSION can. If life was perfect, we all could get paid and retire early for all the "would ofs" and "could ofs" and "should ofs" from our daily lives. But life does not play out that way. As a poker player, life is like poker......"you gotta play the hand that your dealt". While all of us would love to get a Royal Flush, some of us get a far less perfect hand, but we are left to make the best of it. OUR GUY..........our guy is a very smart, very talented, very handsome and a VERY lovable 17 year old. Our days are filled, not with the upcoming Junior Prom, but with what Disney Princess he likes best. Our conversations are not about making certain to have safe sex, but to be safe crossing the street. We're not following him on Twitter, but talking about Tweety Bird instead. The 5 food groups are: McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Wendys and Applebees!!! I have a copy of the following that I keep close by everyday. To me, it is the best encapsulation for all of us who are parents of a child with a disability: WELCOME TO HOLLAND I am oftern asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability--to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this: When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip--to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says. "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would have never met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland. Emily Pearl Kingsley Read that again. You can't begin to know how dead-on this passage is. How much I would love to wake up and smell the roses in Italy. But you also don't know how incredible it can be everyday to get to wake up and smell the Tulips each day in Holland!!! AWARENESS please............. DogZog22

SERIOUSLY......THAT LINE ABOUT 50 BEING THE NEW 30......IT'S FRIGGIN BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!

OK, OK where have I been. It is now been far too long since my last posted blog. While this new one is dated March 14th on the post, it was just finished right now just past midnight on March 24th. This gives you an idea of what a TRAIN WRECK I have been recently since it took me 10 days to start and finish one blog. But now it is done and officially dated 1 day and 1 month since my last blog. Where has the DogZog been hiding you may wonder. So before I can get back to my regular blogging I've first gotta make my explanatory"return blog" about where the *&%$ I've been for since February 23rd. The Steelers win a Super Bowl on February 1st, I immediately start up my blog after that and proceed to punch out 4 of them in February and then, Mr. DZ disappears. I wish I had a multitude of e-mails clamoring for my return, but my immediate family is not that big. So let's get something straight right up front. I'm 2 months past turning 48. That "50 is the new 30" bullshit is just that....bullshit. Better put for all you folks who may be fans of Family Guy (like yours truly!!!) in the words of Peter Griffin........'Ahhhh CRAP" As noted, I'm 48 and my ass is feelin more like 68 right around now. You see Mr. DZ has been on the disabled list for several weeks now with a Fractured Patella. NOTE: For those of you following this blog in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens, that immensely complicated medical term is spelled: B-r-o-k-e-n K-n-e-e-c-a-p. Sky Diving you might ask? Ski Jumping? Bull Fighting? Bodyguard for Bernie Madoff? Babysitter for the OctuMom? No, it was not any of those dangerous endeavors. Oh I wish it was all that exciting, but I was taken out by my 11 year-old son in a kitchen wrestling match. You see, he thought it would be HILARIOUS to take his knee and slam it into "Daddy's Tenders", while I thought it was best to use my knee to block that attack. 6 weeks later and I'm still far, far from 100%. At least the leg brace is off and I can somewhat function in regular life. Boy, does IT SUCK GETTING OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So the drive, energy and creativity---actually if I even had any creativity---well all of these are back so look for me to pine some mindless musings that have been rambling around in my scrambled brain. So very soon, look for my pent up thoughts on Music, The National Pastime, Some Puck, the NFL offseason and of course the items du jour of everyday culture. DZ22

WHEN in "SIXBURGH" ONE MUST BLOG.....and of COURSE GO TO PRIMANTIS

My plan after my premier blog was to do a recap next week touching on the Steelers SB XLIII victory and my blurbs about other aspects of the season of RING #6. But travels have brought me into "SIXBURGH" for the weekend and the impetus of this unplanned blog comes from looking directly out the window to my left. For the view from the Sheraton Station Square allows me to look directly into MECCA aka HEINZ FIELD and drives me to punch out a few notes that rambled in my head during the 6 hour drive from the Garden State. I'M a FREAK......My daughter BB2 read the intro and first paragraph of my premiere blog and described me as such. But please don't think for a minute that she wasn't texting all her little gal pals about it. MORE on BEN, WHAT ELSE....... 1) Looking at the "Ben to 10" winning TD again, he only threw into TRIPLE coverage. But that accurate laser could have been thrown in and past 5-6 defenders. AMAZING!!! 2) BTW.......Ben now has an 8-2 record in the playoffs. Ben.....PLEASE, PLEASE don't ride your hog this off season!!! 3) Everyone needs to know that 2 of the bigger if not biggest Ben's supporters all along have been Don @ Mondesishouse.com and Dave Dameshek of ESPN Radio 710 in LA. MEGA KUDOS to them for being spot on with the talents of one #7 . 4) Great spot on Letterman and mighty dapper duds Ben sported. Which brings me to........ 5) What was the deal with that Fargo-like hat he was sporting at the victory parade? Casey Hampton goes shirtless and Ben sports something looking like a dead squirrel orgy? 6) Lastly and MOST IMPORTANTLY....the only sentence I want to read where Tony Romo is dared mentioned with Ben is something like this......."Tony Romo as you know dates Jessica Simpson, who now weighs as much as Ben Roethlisberger". THE DIFFERENCE......Ben excels and takes his team to victory on the last drive of the Super Bowl. Tony Romo accumulates fantasy points during week 3 against Detroit. Sorry Cousin Sal, but the truth hurts. WANNA BUY a T-SHIRT?.......I think literally every shop in Pittsburgh right now has Steelers merch. Only in Pittsburgh do you see a store, HomeTowne Sports, where you have (3) separate locations selling merch. One for all stuff, one specifically for women (BB2 picked up some goods there yesterday!) and one specifically for kids. Gotta feeling you don't have this same set up in Phoenix. THE CARDS WILL BE SHUFFLED.......Mark this down, the Cards will NOT make the playoffs next year. The upheaval has already begun.....Boldin still wants out, no surprise. Now not only are they looking for a new OC, which was expected with Todd Haley taking the Chiefs job, they are now looking for a new DC, as Clancy Pendergast seems to have been pushed out. Guess Coach Whis did not look very favorably on the way the "D" played on the Steelers SB winning drive. Throw on top of 2 new coordinators needed, that Kurt Warner is a free agent. Now with a new OC, coming in, what will Kurt want to do??? Lastly, Karlos Dansby is also a free agent and some other team will surely offer him big $$$ and you've got the 3rd most recent disaster in the desert. Disasters #1 being the John McCain candidacy (or lack thereof) and the crumbling of the once mighty Suns in the NBA West being #2. THE BUTLER MIGHT DO IT..........I do not know the relationship he had when Ken Whisenhunt coached on the same staff with him with the Steelers, but look for Keith Butler, LB coach of the Steelers to possibly emerge as a candidate for the Cards DC position. Butler has learned well under Dick LeBeau and the play of the LBs are surely what makes the Steelers "D" tick. WHAT's WITH THE NEW "DO".........Speaking of Kurt Warner, I was shocked watching the Super Bowl that they only showed his wife Brenda on TV 2 times that I remember. Watching replays of his old Super Bowls with the Rams recently, they must have had her on camera at least a dozen times each game. And low and behold, when did she become like the Pantene woman with the long blond hair? Ditching that old flat-top; Sargeant Carter; I could hit a nice 6-iron off of it haircut? FINALLY, PLEASE SHUT THE %$#@ UP ALREADY ABOUT THE OFFICIALS........Can we get done with the moaning and groaning and conspiracy theories about the officiating. BOTTOM LINE.....Cards "D" had their chances and just needed to make ONE PLAY and win the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. They didn't make a play, but Ben and Santonio did!!! STOP ALREADY. Steelers won, Cardinals lost. Pittsburgh survived the roughest schedule in NFL regular season history to post the #2 record in the regular season and then went 3-0 in the playoffs to win it all. Arizona was a 9-7 team in the NFC WORST and got hot at the right time. Arizona fans, the 20,000 of you (if that) out there, stop cryin' in your beer or your Arizona Ice Tea. If it makes you feel any better, soon you will have cactus league baseball..........or maybe you can go out for an extra early bird dinner this week. IT's OVER, STOP ALREADY!!! Now.......it's off to Primantis!!! DZ

MY DAUGHTER AND I ARE IN LOVE WITH THE SAME MAN

EDITORS NOTE: This is the premiere version of DOGS ZOG BLOG. It will be enjoyable to me, as surely I have been known to laugh at myself. Hopefully it will be enjoyable to you and you pass it on to many friends and colleagues. I won't be splitting the atom here, but like my usual self I will pass on mindless musings that ramble around in my head everyday. The plan is to do "at least" 1 blog per week, some dealing exclusively with sports, while others will touch on everyday life and culture. Today's premiere version comes at a celebratory time as it deals with SIX-BURGH and the Super Bowl Steelers. So in the famous words of Steeler Nation.......HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully the title of my INITIAL blog has not scared you off from deleting already, especially when you know or find out that I am a 48yr old MAN. Loving the same man as my 14yr old daughter??? NO, I'm not a candidate for Chris Hanson to come strolling out of his hiding place on To Catch A Predator. Nor have I ever been a priest. NO, NO, NO. It is all so logical......... I LOVE BEN ROETHLISBERGER!!!!!!!!!!!! And for all of us members of STEELER NATION who went on a roller coaster ride on Super Bowl Sunday like we were riding the Thunderbolt at Kennywood Park, that man, that BEN, made us all giddy with the already famous "BEN to 10" game winning TD in Super Bowl XLIII. NOTE: For those of you who go to Pitt---all you couch-burners---XLIII is roman numeral for 43. OK, stay with us kids. Of course in context my affection for BEN is different than that of my daughter's. My first happy hungover text of the day after the SB win came from her advising me that her and Ben will be tying the knot on February 1, 2013! WOW, what news. She has been designated BB2---Ben's Babe #2 by her cousin, who is of course......BB1, so my daughter can only achieve second place status. But in this house, she has to try and be a bigger fan than I, which was always tough and now after Sunday, practically impossible. Now my affection is much more shallow than that of my daughter, BB2. C'mon after all, I am a man and is there anything is this world shallower than a man??? No my affection is all between the white lines as he is the unquestioned leader of my team, MY STEELERS.

BEN as he is known all across the NFL universe, has been praised and appreciated more and more for each passing game this year. After Sunday, you already hear people discussing his Hall of Fame candidacy. 2 Super Bowls in 4 years folks. INCREDIBLY.....Ben might be more appreciated prior to Sunday more outside of Pittsburgh than he was in Pittsburgh. I harken back to listening to Stan and Guy on Pittsburgh ESPN talk radio after the Washington game and people wanted Byron Leftwich to keep playing. Then again the same thing after Ben threw the 2 bad picks and the Steelers lost to Indy. HELLO, McFLY.....get a friggin clue people. No, like my daughter I have been 1,000% in Ben's camp since he slipped down to the 11th pick in the 2004 draft and I was dancing in the street. No seriously, I was out on the front street when I got the news and I was dancing.

Like an old commercial slogan in the Garden State, Big Ben and Pittsburgh are perrrrrrfect together. The perfect QB for the best NFL franchise with the best fans. Ben will always be compared as part of the BIG 3 QB class of 2004. Eli Manning has a Super Bowl win, but please he cannot even throw the ball thru the wind at the Meadolwnads. No thanks, you can keep Opie Taylor on the Giants. Philip Rivers.....cocky, big mouthed and the QB on the biggest under performing team in the NFL for his tenure. You can have him and his big mouth, cocky self as well. Me, I'll take Ben every game, every day for the next 10-12 years.

So while the Steelers should have won the Super Bowl by 17 points going away, the inexcusable "prevent" (gulp!) defense chose to kick in and thank goodness, so did my blood pressure medicine. But the good news was that my man, my #7, my QB, MY BEN was able to lead his team down the field on a winning drive for the ages. While a 17 point win would have been nice and easy and dominant, for Ben to win this way, was only appropriate for the QB that he is.

So enough for now until we meet again. I've gotta leave now and call Dan Marino. I need to order some Nutri System. Got some weight to lose so that I can fix in that tux by February 1, 2013---BIG BEN and BB2 tying the knot. See, you CAN love the same man as your daughter!!!

DZG-22